POULSBO - As the pollution-cleanup plan for Liberty Bay nears completion, officials in Kitsap County and elsewhere are beginning to speak out, saying there must be a better way of complying with federal pollution laws.

Like the Dyes-Sinclair Inlet cleanup plan before it, the Liberty Bay plan declares that Kitsap Public Health District is doing a good job of finding and cleaning up bacterial pollution. The plan’s overall recommendation: Keep doing what you’re doing.

The Liberty Bay plan, which cost about $600,000, was written by the state Department of Ecology to comply with the federal Clean Water Act. The plan includes an extensive analysis of how much pollution gets delivered to Liberty Bay from various streams. It assigns “total maximum daily loads,” or TMDLs, which are numerical limits of bacteria for each stream.

Stuart Whitford, manager of the health district’s Pollution Identification and Correction (PIC) Program, says the report has been of limited help in the way his agency goes about cleaning up Liberty Bay. Furthermore, the water-quality standards imposed by the federal process are almost impossible to meet, and the standards have little meaning in the real world.

For example, the water-quality standard for streams in Liberty Bay, between Poulsbo and Keyport, is twice as stringent as that for streams in Dyes Inlet, between Bremerton and Silverdale — even though both are located in growing urban areas. The Clean Water Act essentially locked in water-quality conditions established in 1967, when Liberty Bay was surrounded by rural lands, when the water was cleaner and when commercial shellfish beds were actively being harvested.

If the goal is to protect public health and reopen shellfish beds, then the standards applied to Dyes Inlet are good enough, Whitford said, especially when one considers that three-fourths of Dyes Inlet has been reopened to shellfish harvesting in recent years after being closed for decades.

The Suquamish Tribe has proposed reopening the west side of Liberty Bay for shellfish harvesting. The Washington Department of Health is expected to undertake a three-year review of water quality in the bay as well as upstream pollution sources to make sure that the shellfish are safe to eat.

Two federal standards have been developed for freshwater. The one for Dyes Inlet, called the “primary contact standard,” allows for no more than an average of 100 bacteria in a 100 milliliter sample of water from the streams.

Because of its history, Liberty Bay streams have been designated for the higher standard called “primary extraordinary,” which allows for no more than 50 bacteria in the same-sized sample. The difference is like night and day when it comes to reducing pollution enough for a stream to be declared clean, according to Whitford.

A second part of the standard also must be met. For Dyes Inlet streams, no more than 10 percent of the samples may exceed 200 bacteria. For Liberty Bay streams, no more than 10 percent may exceed 100 bacteria.

“It would be extremely difficult to meet the standard for Liberty Bay,” Whitford said. “The tools we have in the PIC Program are insufficient to meet the extraordinary primary contact standard. But we really believe that the primary contact standard is sufficient to protect public health.”

In fact, many of the Liberty Bay streams are as clean as those in Dyes Inlet, yet they fail the standard. Both areas are affected by failing septic systems, human waste from boaters, livestock waste, pet waste and garbage washed down in stormwater systems.

“Sure, if we could get the number of bacteria down to what you find in the upper limits of the Dosewallips River (in the Olympic Mountains), that would be wonderful,” he said. “But we are not convinced it is worth the extra expenditure of public resources to meet that higher standard.”

The health district won’t stop trying to attain the higher goal, Whitford said, but once a reasonably healthy level is reached, the focus will move to other regions of Kitsap County, he said.

Nearly all Kitsap County streams are monitored closely and are not considered a health hazard until the summer average reaches 271 bacteria per 100 milliliters, according to Whitford. That level was derived from extensive studies of swimming beaches in France, where it was determined that lower levels are no safer when it comes to avoiding illness, he noted.

Dave Garland, a water quality manager for Ecology, said issues regarding which standard is appropriate cannot be addressed through TMDL studies, such as the one for Liberty Bay. Those standards were set years ago by federal rule, and changes would need to go through another elaborate process.

“It does seem incongruent that Dyes Inlet is different from Liberty Bay,” Garland said. “We have other inconsistencies throughout Washington state.”

Kitsap County also would like to be recognized for cleaning up certain streams, said Mindy Fohn manager of Kitsap County’s Water Quality Program. When streams are able to meet the federal standard, as in Dyes Inlet, they should be removed from the “impaired waters list.”

“We have been asking for 12 years to get streams off the list,” Fohn said, “but we are told there is not a process.”

Garland said the Clean Water Act requires that TMDL plans be conducted on all streams that fail to meet the designated water-quality standards. Most states have failed to complete the planning work — Washington among them — but this state has been recognized for its efforts.

A lawsuit filed by environmental groups has pushed Washington to work even harder to get the planning work done, Garland said. The pressure has been to complete the studies, not look back on the designations or improvements.

As a result of the Liberty Bay experience, Garland said Ecology has committed to working with Kitsap County to change the water-quality requirements, if justified, and to delist streams that have attained the required standards.

“Kitsap County has taken great pride in what they do, and understandably so,” Garland said. “Kitsap is definitely a leader in dealing with nonpoint pollution. Their comment that it is hard to get off the list but easy to get on it resonates with us. We are looking for performance measures ... to help them move from the impaired to the clean-water list.”

As for the Liberty Bay plan, Garland said the process has brought together everyone involved in cleaning up the waters, including the county, city of Poulsbo, Washington Department of Transportation and the Navy. The plan has identified where the cleanup work should be focused and has provided a legal process for keeping the cleanup on track.

Garland noted that Kitsap County has taken advantage of an alternative approach for some streams. When local officials can show that they are committed to solving water quality problems, a stream can be placed on special list, called 4b, where it can remain as long as conditions are improving.

Another approach, not yet widely used in Western Washington, is known as “straight to implementation,” which is appropriate for nonpoint pollution, Garland said. The idea is to avoid a full-blown TMDL study if the solutions are fairly clear.

That approach has been used in Eastern Washington, where cattle were allowed to walk in a stream, he said. Instead of studying the pollution, officials directed their efforts at the solution: fencing cattle from the stream, building them separate watering areas and planting vegetation to filter the runoff.

Fohn said several local governments have joined forces to propose more efficient ways of dealing with pollution planning, and they hired a consultant to review how agencies in other states have addressed the problem. The Washington entities include Kitsap, King, Pierce and Clark counties, along with the city of Bellingham.

“What we have in common is a lack of clarity in the process,” Fohn said. “How are areas selected and implemented for different regions of Ecology?”

The group will work with Ecology to improve the process and cut down on unnecessary costs, she said.

“The goal is to clean up the water bodies,” Fohn said. “We have the tools; we have the motivation; and our citizens are with us. What we need is the process to help us out.”

Ecology is responding to public comments in a draft of the Liberty Bay cleanup plan, which must be approved by the federal Environmental Protection Agency. For information, go to www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wq/tmdl/LibertyBay.